APOLLO 12 Medallion with Flown Metal Continues 40th Anniversary Series

Apollo 40th Anniversary Flown Metal Series Continues......

Apollo 12 Medallion

The medallion features the Apollo 12 mission insignia on one face and the 40th Anniversary motif on the other and is encapsulated in a protective plastic casing.

The Apollo 12 mission was the first opportunity in the scientific exploration of the Moon to sample extensively the rocks within half a kilometre of the landing site.

Command Module Pilot Richard Gordon Jr. remained in lunar orbit as the Apollo 12 Lunar Module landed on the northwest rim of the Surveyor Crater in the Ocean of Storms. The landing site was at 23 degrees 4 minutes west longitude and 3 degrees 2 minutes south latitude, approximately 120 kilometres (75 miles) southeast of Lansberg Crater and due north of the centre of Mare Cognitum.

The landing site is near a ray associated with the Copernicus Crater, which is approximately 370 kilometres (230 miles) to the north, and is characterized by a distinctive cluster of craters ranging from 50 to 400 meters in diameter.

During two moon walks totalling 7 hours and 45 minutes, the astronauts collected lunar soil and additional surface samples along a geologic traverse. Commander Charles Conrad Jr. and Lunar Module Pilot Alan Bean obtained material from the bottom of a shallow trench and brought back several items from the Surveyor 3 spacecraft.

The astronauts caught some of the solar wind in an aluminium foil, and they took photographs of the lunar surface and crew activities with 70-mm Hasselblad cameras and a close-up stereoscopic camera.